House Republicans on Tuesday forged a new path to make E15 fuel available year-round.
In a strategy advanced by the House Rules Committee, Republican lawmakers moved to temporarily break the biofuel fight away from the five-year farm bill that’s poised for a floor vote this week.
Instead, leadership settled on an alternative that would keep the divisive politics of ethanol from sinking the long-overdue farm measure: vote on a separate bill on E15, then add it to the farm bill after both measures have passed the House.
E15 — which is 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline — can’t generally be sold in summer due to air pollution standards, although EPA has waived the rules on an emergency basis for seven years straight. Expanding sales of the corn-derived fuel is a top priority for the biofuel industry and farm groups.
